Thursday 28 January 2016

The late great Donald Houston



I was looking up some of the less regular Carry On actors the other day when I came across a lovely blog on the BBC Wales website about that excellent Welsh actor Donald Houston. Donald had a long career in the acting profession, working almost non stop for decades in film, on television and on the stage.

Carry On fans will remember him for his supporting turn in 1963's Carry On Jack alongside Percy Herbert. Houston had appeared for Rogers and Thomas the year before, also with Jack co-stars Juliet Mills and Kenneth Williams, in the tear-jerker medical comedy Twice Round the Daffodils. Donald also starred in two of the Betty Box and Ralph Thomas Doctor films - first of all Doctor in the House in 1954 and then Doctor In Distress nearly ten years later in 1963.

 

Some of Donald's other famous films included the Second World War epic The Longest Day in 1962, The Red Beret in 1953, Under Milk Wood in 1957 and Room at the Top two years later. With the decline of the British film industry in the 1970s, Houston, like many of his contemporaries began to make more television appearances. These included roles in The Protectors, The Return of the Saint, The Boy Merlin and Jemima Shore Investigates. 

After making his last credited acting appearance in The Brief on television in 1984, Houston passed away aged 67 in Portugal. You can read more about his life and acting career here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/entries/10c331cb-8cc2-3175-9b5a-b3d7a6e74702 

 

They just don't seem to make solid, reliable British character actors like Donald Houston anymore. 




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